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Can institutions reduce the vulnerability to climate change? A study on the char lands of Assam, India

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Abstract

Studies taking into account numerous aspects of climate change, disaster, and risk are necessary in order to emphasize the diverse issues such as threats to human lives, their asset base, and their livelihood vulnerability etc. that people confront in different regions. This study explores how institutions may help char dwellers, who reside in Assam, India's flood-prone and erosion-affected areas, become less vulnerable to climate change. The study measures the char dwellers' vulnerability to climate change using the adjusted livelihood vulnerability index (ALVI). The study also evaluates the quality and efficiency of the char institutions in raising the adaptability of the char inhabitants using the adaptive capacity wheel (ACW) and the generalized linear model (GLM). The study finds that the physical circumstances such as geographical location and structure of the char and social circumstances such as different socio-cultural and ethnic belongings of char residents place them at high risk and making the char institutions ineffective and performing unevenly among locations. The GLM result shows that institutions play a substantial role in reducing vulnerability. Land ownership, hazard prevention, and adaptation measures are all important variables in lowering their risk. The study suggests that boosting the char dwellers' resilience requires cooperation and diversity across different types of institutions.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Source: Authors’ own finding

Fig. 3

Source: Authors’ own finding

Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Source: Authors' own calculation. Note: 1 < Value < 2. 0 < Value < 1. Value = 0. -1 < Value < 0. -2 < Value < -1

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Data availability

The study is based on the primary data and the authors are not willing to share the data publically. However, for the review process, the data can be accessed on request.

Notes

  1. Char areas are defined as ‘the new riverine lands and islands created by the continual shifting of the rivers, and emerge from the deposition of sand and silt from upstream. Chars are found along all the major river systems, both lining the banks of rivers and as mid-river islands’ (DFID, 2000). GOA (1983) defined the river islands of Assam as char and the attached land of the same category as chaporis.

  2. Geographically the entire state of Assam is divided into six agro-climatic zones. These six zones are: Upper Brahmaputra Valley, North Bank Plain Zone, Middle Brahmaputra Valley, Lower Brahmaputra Valley, Hill Zone and Barak Valley Zone. Out of these, the first four zones are covered by the Brahmaputra Valley and char areas are found across these four zones.

  3. The judicial and political norms, the economic rules, and the contracts are constraints or rules under formal institutions (North 1990).

  4. According to North (1990), Yifu (1987), informal institutions are the unspoken laws or standards that govern behavior, such as morals, beliefs, codes of conduct, and traditions.

  5. The idea of actor in institutional economics is as an/any entity, which is endowed with agency (Voronov and Weber, 2020). For the identification of actor, researchers use the idea of organizations, people and other collective constructions like state or nation (Lok, 2018; Meyer, 2010).

  6. Good governance is a principle, covering the ideas of decentralization, rule of law, democracy, discretion into it (Botchway, 2001).

  7. MAC is an autonomous governing body of Assam.

  8. TMPK is a Mishing students’ union and known as the father organization of MAC. TMPK is the informal institution, while MAC is a formal body of institution.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund for providing the fellowship. We would also like to acknowledge Gauhati University, Assam, India for giving space while writing the paper along with all the respondents who have provided their crucial information in the field survey.

Funding

The corresponding author has received financial aid in the form of fellowship during the preparation of the manuscript. The fellowship was provided by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund.

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  1. Department of Economics, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Mrinal Saikia & Ratul Mahanta

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  1. Mrinal Saikia
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  2. Ratul Mahanta
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collected and Manuscript written by Mrinal Saikia. Manuscript reviewed and corrected by Ratul Mahanta. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mrinal Saikia.

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Saikia, M., Mahanta, R. Can institutions reduce the vulnerability to climate change? A study on the char lands of Assam, India. GeoJournal 89, 22 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-024-11015-8

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